Quillings

I'm fortunate enough to have three stories coming out in the next three months (including November). "Sweet as Honey" just came out in Issue 15 of IGMS, "Good Morning Heartache" is coming out next month in Spells of the City, from Daw Books, and "In Memory Of" is coming out in January in the Spells & Chrome anthology from Catalyst Game Labs. As a way to promote these stories and the markets they appear in, and also to share a bit of my early work, I'm going to be putting up one piece of free fiction when each of these stories come out.

The first is "Flotsam", which appeared in Writers of the Future volume 20. Check back next month for another installment. You can also find this page in the Free Fiction Online tab on my home page.

Enjoy!

My story, "Sweet as Honey", is now live in Issue 15 of the Intergalactic Medicine Show. This was one of my Clarion stories from a few years back, and I’m proud to have it in print.

My story, "Shadows in the Mirrors," (which appeared in DAW’s Dimensions Next Door anthology) was mentioned recently in Ellen Datlow’s list of stories for her Best Horror collection. Pretty snazzy…

I know, it’s been a while. Work has been a bit crazy. That’s an understatement. It’s been some of the most demanding work in my professional career. Not bad work, not bad people to work with, either, but it’s taken a *lot* of my time. Any extra time has gone to family and writing, so I haven’t had extra cycles to drop by here. I hope, hope, hope that this is going to change soon.

But I do have news… I had a story, "Sweet as Honey", that sold to IGMS a while back. I got the galleys for that and sent them back. I’m excited to get that story out to the world. It was written at Clarion in 2006, and it’s gone through several major iterations, but it’s a story I’ve always believed in, so it’s going to be nice to see it out. It should be up in November.

Similar story for "In Memory Of," which sold to the Spells & Chrome anthology from Catalyst Game Labs. That is hopefully going to be out early in 2010. No firm date yet, so I’ll update as I know more.

I did sell one more story, but I’ll hold off on that news because I don’t actually have the contract in hand.

I’m headed to World Fantasy this year in San Jose. My wife, Joanne, is coming with me for the early part of the trip. We’re going to go to Big Sur, to Muir Woods, San Francisco, and then JoJo’s heading back home while I continue on to World Fantasy. I’m not planning on much besides relaxing and networking a bit. I hope to shop around Winds, which I’m just finishing up now. If anyone else is going, I hope to see you there!

Better late than never?

Last year at GenCon, Cathy Johnson, known to some as CathyBoy, gave each of the Writers Symposium writers a water color portrait. I really love how mine turned out. The rest of them are really cool, too. My favorite is probably Pat Rothfuss, the garden gnome. Thanks, Cathy!

I have a story, “Good Morning Heartache,” which is set to appear in Spells of the City (formerly known as City Fantastic). I like the name change. I think Spells of the City has a bit more flair to it. Anyway, I received the galleys about a week ago and ran through the story one more time to check for minor errors. I’ve noticed a trend of mine, lately. I work really hard to make sure the openings of my stories are “grabby”, but in doing so I often fall out of my natural story tone and pacing. The result? I can’t say that they’re bad openings, but they’re rougher than the rest of my prose, because I’m out of my comfort zone. I think this is perfectly fine. I’m pushing myself to write differently, and in the end, I think I’ll be a better writer for it. I just have to pay special attention to those openings to make sure they flow while still hooking the reader.

The other thing I noticed was that the story itself held up really well. I wrote it pretty quickly, but I like how it turned out, especially considering I was writing from the POV of a black woman living in Harlem.

Well, I’m finally back from the Starry Heaven novel workshop. It was held in Flagstaff, AZ, and was largely organized by Sarah K. Castle, one of my Clarion classmates from way back in 2006. We had a great group of authors there. Sarah K. Castle, Greg van Eekhout, Sarah Prineas, Deb Coates, Debbie Daughtee, Rob Ziegler, Eugene Myers, Jon Hansen, Sandra McDonald (not MacDonald!), Bill Shunn, Gary Shockley, and, well, me! The basic criterion for inclusion was that you had to have sold at least one story to a professional market, though I think nearly everyone surpassed this by far. The format was stolen from the Blue Heaven workshop, and it roughly goes like this: Days 1, 2, and 3, the writers all critique one another’s first 50 pages. Everyone crits everyone else’s stuff. It’s a brutal, free-for-all bash fest, and many a time the evil incarnation of the nice authors who showed up on Welcome Night appeared and gave wicked reviews. That’s tough, to sit there and get reviews from people that have all earned their stripes. Days 4, 5, and 6 were less demanding. You had to critique two other novels, and two other writers had critique yours. Lots of work to get ready for these few days (reading and preparing comments for two novels), but once they arrived it was fairly smooth sailing. The sessions were alotted two hours, but they lasted more like and hour and a half.

For my part, I learned a lot. As with any workshop, you learn as much about writing from listening to others critique something that you’ve also read and critiqued as you do from people critiquing your own work. It’s always eye opening for me to hear what other people have to say about something I’ve tried really hard to find all the faults in. Invariably there are things that I missed, and it’s in those moments that you can grow as a writer if you internalize those thoughts.

Don’t get me wrong. I got a ton out of my first-50 crits and my novel crits as well. I have an issue with likeable protagonists. I try to paint them as people that need to grow. I show them with weaknesses early on so that the reader can see that they’re not perfect, that they have room to grow. That they’re regular people, basically. But the way I go about doing it is a bit off, I think. First impressions really count in fiction. It’s important to show them with heroic or admirable qualities early so that later, when they do see the bad stuff, they’re already predisposed to like them. The exact same person could be portrayed in an opening scene, but if the bad stuff comes first, then that’s what sticks with the reader. Not that my characterization was exactly on the money, either. I was a bit off the mark with Nikandr, the Prince and windship captain who the story is largely focused on. He came across as infantile, whiny, petty. I certainly wasn’t trying to portray him that way, but that’s certainly the way he came across. So I need to work on that. I think (hope) that those traits begin to fall away as the book progresses, and so the majority of the rework is going to come in the early parts of the novel. But I’m sure those changes will lead to other changes later on.

So I have my work cut out for me. I’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there (at least by my self-assigned schedule), but I’m very hopeful that the end product is in sight now. I’m going to shoot for having Winds done by the time World Fantasy rolls around.

If you’re interested, you can see some of the goings-on via Mike Kelly’s and Eugene Myers‘ photo albums. Oh, and here’s my favorite of me, taken late, late at night by Bill Shunn at the Lowell Observatory:

I’m at Starry Heaven this week. It’s the same format as Blue Heaven, if you know what that is. If you don’t, it’s a one-week novel workshop in which twelve writers get together and hack each other’s novels apart. We start with slashing the first fifty pages and move on to demolishing the full novels. We’ve made it through the first-fifties today.

I got quite a lot of good, sound feedback. I very often (and my current novel, Winds, is no exception) try to paint the protagonist as human, and in doing so I write in weaknesses. Trouble is, the reader’s first impression is then of a weak character, and it has a lasting impression. I really have to work on choosing the right amount of heroism for the protagonist and later show weaknesses.

The other primary issue that came across was the timing of the novel opening. Specifically, I was starting the story a little too early. It’s a common problem, and often easy to fix. Just start later and sprinkle in any necessary information that was cut into later parts of the novel. I think this one will be an easy fix. The character issues? Not so much.

A worthy cause, it seems to me, from fellow writer James Maxey:

The following message went up on my blogs today under the heading, "Books for Breasts." At the end of this copied text, I’ve got a special message for fellow Codexians:

Followers of my blogs, and the readers who read the acknowledgement pages of my books, will know that I lost my partner Laura Herrmann to breast cancer in May 2005. I’ve been interested in cancer research since then and have privately made contributions to cancer related charities, but I’ve never put out any sort of appeal on my blogs to solicit for this cause, until now.

Last week, I received several cases of my latest book Dragonseed. One of the ongoing themes of Dragonseed is the idea of healing, both from physical and spiritual wounds. Within the book there’s a miraculous object called a dragonseed: Eat the seed, and all your injuries will be healed. Even your oldest scars will vanish.

I have some science fiction hoodoo underlying the dragonseed. The technology to create a pill that will both diagnose and cure any illness is pretty far out in our future, if it exists at all. But, the part of this that isn’t science fiction or hoodoo is that I believe that technology has the power to work miracles. We have MRI and PET scans that can look into a human body and see it working in minute detail. We have developed surgical tools and techniques that can remove diseased tissues from a human body without doing undo damage to healthy tissues. My father had a heart attack recently, and the doctors had to place stents in his arteries. The incision to perform the operation was small enough to cover with a band-aid. And, right now, there are researchers who are taking apart cancer cells molecule by molecule to understand the genetic engines that drive them to a degree unimaginable only a few decades ago.

We live in an age of miracles because we live in an age of knowledge. Modern computers are finally powerful enough to process all the complex data contained within a human cell. The only barriers remaining between our present understanding a cure for any disease you can name are time and money.

These are not insignificant barriers. New technologies are always expensive. And, to be blunt, the world has a limited supply of really smart people, and a nearly unlimited supply of problems for them to solve. For better or worse, money is one of the most important driving forces of where the smart people focus their energies. In the sixties, it was decided we would put a man on the moon. We threw money at the problem, and produced a glut of rocket scientists. In the eighties and nineties, computer technology was fed enormous sums of money by the stock market, and smart people focused their energies on designing hardware and software, and with the result that today my cell phone has more memory than I do. There is a lot of money today flowing into health care, but only a fraction of this money goes to research of any given disease. I’d like to invite you to increase the fraction going to breast cancer research, both due to my personal connection to the cause, and because I think that this is the right moment in history to truly make a difference. I firmly believe this is a disease than can be cured within our lifetime. I don’t know if one day we will simply swallow a magic pill and be healed, but I do know that the day will come when we will be able to profile any cancer cell and match it with the appropriate drug to wipe it out.

To help bring this day closer, if only by a minute or two, I’d like to announce my "Books for Breasts" promotion. Anyone who contributes to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation through the "Team Dragon" fundraising page will get a free signed copy of Dragonseed.

You can contribute to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation by clicking here. This will take you to my personal fundraising page; just click the button that says "support James." Then, to get your signed copy of Dragonseed, just email me your mailing address to nobodynovelwriter@yahoo.com. I’ve set aside 50 copies for this cause; if I give them all away by the end of July, I’m pretty sure I can get my hands on another 50.

I’ve set up a modest goal of raising $300 through this promotion. This means I need to average contributions of $6, which is less than you’d pay for the book on Amazon. However, I’ll send you a book for a contribution in any amount, even if it’s just a buck. Spend a buck, get a book, save some breasts. Who’s with me?

I used to be a comic hound. Well, not as bad as some I know (eyes Rick & Terry H.), but I collected my fair share back in the day. I got out of them but always wanted to do something in that medium. My friend, Rick Potts, is a great artist, and has even done some fill-in work in comics. He’s agreed to do the artwork for it. Most comics companies nowadays (I guess) want you to submit not just scripts, but the completed first issue. It’s a higher bar for most people to cross, and I’m sure they took that step because they were getting deluged with scripts. Scripts are pretty easy to write. Note that I didn’t say they were easy to write well. I just mean they’re easy to generate… So, I guess I understand why they’ve done this. And I don’t really mind. It’ll be a fun project to work on.

So, the project I chose is called Cirque du Lumière. It was a novelette I wrote at Clarion and that was published in DAW’s Fellowship Fantastic anthology last year, but I had earmarked it even while I was writing it for a potential graphic novel translation. I’ve completed the first script, which is essentially half of the novelette. I imagine it will be six issues total, or three novelettes (if I end up writing them in that fashion, which I think I will).

I don’t know a whole lot about the comic creation process beyond the script, but luckily Rick knows a bit about it. I’ve given him the script, and then he’s going to generate thumbnails, which are very rough, sketchy-type drawings of the scenes. They’re meant only as placeholders with very little detail so we can both agree on the panel layouts, the characters in the shots, the camera angles, etc. That should be interesting. I’ll scan and post one of the thumbnails when they’re done, but for now, here’s a teaser for the script (formatting’s a touch funky from the cut-n-paste from Word):

 

PAGE 1 -

 

1- Ext. Blighted, desert landscape. Day. Full page shot.

 

The circus troupe is traveling over a desert landscape. They’re on a ridge, getting ready to head lower toward a flat, rocky plain that leads to the city of Alé Surçois. Along the lower-right of the horizon is the shield-city (large but not overwhelming). The city’s hemispherical shield acts as a lens, bending light like the lone remaining piece from God’s own kaleidoscope. Towers and buildings and arching bridges can be seen within, each painted with an indigo brush against a harsh yellow canvas, and to the city’s left, running northward, a slim line of white traces a curve over the blighted land.

 

PAGE 2

 

1- Ext. Blighted, desert landscape.

 

Viewpoint is much closer to the troupe now. Grignal considers the landscape from the top of a small rise.

 

Grignal narration:       My favorite part of our crossings is always the end, not because our time in the badwinds is nearly over, but because the city still seems alluring and full of promise.

 

Grignal narration:          Nothing could be further from the truth, of course — Alé Surçois is in the midst of a fierce and bloody political battle — but I can’t help pretending at times like this.

 

2 - Ext. Blighted, desert landscape.

 

Grignal in the foreground, showing him from behind. In the background is Bayard, the troupe leader, waving to Grignal, annoyed. The line of wagons moves on, except for one, which has become stuck.

 

Bayard:                        “Grignal!”

 

SFX Trailing Wagon:    Zzzzz-Zzzzzzzz (or something appropriate for spinning tires)

 

3 - Ext. Blighted, desert landscape. Bayard, doffing his top hat, walking back toward the wagon line.

 

Bayard:                        “Keep your eyes on the line!”

 

Grignal:             “Sorry, boss man.”

 

SFX Trailing Wagon:    Zzz-Zzzz-Zzzzzzzz

 

4 - Ext. Blighted, desert landscape. Grignal reaches the stuck wagon, which is little more than a mishmash of ancient tank parts and welded scrap metal.

 

Remmiau, the show’s knife thrower, stands by the front of the wagon, staring with coral-colored eyes at an ancient fusion engine. His brown bowler is in one of his hands as he clears his forehead of sweat.

 

Remmiau:                     “About time, you big ugly lizard.”

 

PAGE 3

 

1 - Ext. Blighted, desert landscape.

 

Grignal, an annoyed expression on his face, is lifting the wagon as Remmiau sits on the driver’s bench, pressing on the accelerator.

 

Grignal narration:          Remmiau’s always saying things like that.

 

Grignal narration:          He mostly doesn’t mean them.

 

Remmiau:                                 “Such a sour puss. No one would ever guess how thin that skin is, would they?”

 

SFX Trailing Wagon:    Zzzzzz

 

2 - Ext. The wagon is on its way again. Grignal is walking next to it while Remmiau steers it toward the rear of the line.

 

Remmiau:                     “Listen, son, I might have a deal for you if you’re nice.”

 

Grignal:             “Not interested.”

 

Remmiau:                                 “Oh, I know what you’re thinking. The last one went bad, am I right? But this one’s simple. Simple as pie.”

 

3 - Ext. View from the front of the wagon with Remmiau steering it and Grignal walking beside it. Remmiau is staring straight ahead, but looking sidelong at Grignal.

 

Grignal:             “They’re always simple, Rem.”

 

Remmiau:                                 “No, I mean really simple. A pick and a pop, half now, half when we reach Balgique-en-Leurre.”

 

Grignal narration:          He means a body. Someone wants a person, most likely in a cryosleeve, transported to the troupe’s next stop.

 

Grignal narration:          I don’t care one way or another who–the troupe took on jobs like this often enough–but Remmiau seems too eager, which can only mean trouble.

 

4 - Ext. Grignal has stopped, allowing the wagon to continue. Remmiau is looking back over his shoulder.

 

Remmiau:                                 “Right, you be that way, but lizards need dosh just like the rest of us. You remember that.”

 

5 - Ext. The city looms large in the background. The wagon is further on, but Grignal still stands in that same spot, looking at Remmiau and troupe.

 

Grignal narration:          I know Remmiau’s right. He pays well enough, and he’s one of the few people that’ll actually hire me. But his deals, no matter how simple they seem, always manage to develop complications.

 

Well, a bit of good news to go along with the not-too-bad-but-certainly-disturbing news. I just got the word from IGMS that they’d like to publish my story, "Sweet as Honey." This is a story I wrote at Clarion back in 2006. It was a cool idea for a story, but a bit raw after Clarion. I rewrote it and sent if off, but it still didn’t quite hit the mark. The editor, Edmund Schubert, was kind enough to work with me to get the story into shape, and today he let me know he’d like to publish it. It will hopefully be out in the December issue.

My manager called a meeting today, and this was when we already had one scheduled for Thursday. Plus, he hates meetings in general, so this was pretty strange. IBM (including Tivoli, which is the group I work in) has already had a layoff this year, and I’ve been very wary about our group being put on the chopping block. So this meeting had the hairs on my arms raised up.

We got into the call, and my boss starts talking about a long talk he had with his boss over the weekend. I was just waiting for it: the word that we were all being let go. I was already trying to figure out how I was going to pay for insurance, my mortgage, where to find a new job, etc., etc. But getting let go wasn’t the end of his story. Long story short, the small group of eight guys I work in is getting broken up and split across several different products in Tivoli’s stable. We are currently in an enablement team, and anyone who knows anything about big business knows that enablement doesn’t produce dollars, and in an economy like ours, they look very, very closely at things that don’t directly pay their own way when it comes time to make cuts.

I feel fortunate not to have been let go outright. I’ll be working with a new tool called Maximo. It’s an asset management tool meant to help medium- to large-sized businesses track their stuff, virtual or real. It’s apparently a growing segment, so hopefully I can fit in and be successful. I’m worried that it’s going to mean a lot of travel, but right now that’s only a fear. I don’t really know what the job will entail at this point.

I just met with a fellow at the house who conducts solar assessments for residential homes. I’m hoping that my budget allows me to put some up. The payback is a long time, but I’m not looking strictly at that. I’m hoping to go a bit more green, to offset some monthly bills, and to perhaps help further the technology. Some have to adopt the technology for it to lower in price and eventually out-compete more traditional forms of power generation. I’ll post the assessment once I have it, just in case anyone is interested.

To get things started, I called my local power company, which happens to be WE Energies. They forwarded me to FocusOnEnergy, an outfit that is paid for via a levy that was forced on Wisconsin power companies by state law. In other words, the power companies pay for FocusOnEnergy, but they wouldn’t be doing so if they weren’t forced to by law. They paid for 50% of the solar assessment, which is great. It only cost me $200 to get it done. And the assessment itself gives me detailed information about what sort of panels would work for the house, where they should go, how much power I can expect them to generate, and what rebates and credits I’m entitled to.

I’m also paying for a home energy audit. That guy’s coming tomorrow, and I’ll share info about that process as well.

This is an interesting article from TreeHugger, but what I found really interesting were the graphs near the bottom about Community-Supported Agriculture.

Here’s another story: in January I paid $325 for vegetables that I won’t see until June, and I’m tickled pink over this great deal. That chunk o‚ money bought a 25-week prepaid subscription to Siena Farms‚ produce for the entire season. Siena Farms are in Sudbury, the next town over (in the other direction). By paying up front in the winter months, the time when farms most need the investment income to support the next growing season, I’ll helping ensure there’s a viable organic farm in my community. Farm-fresh vegetable subscriptions are called community-supported agriculture, or CSA. Currently there are more than 2200 CSAs in the USA, and a bunch are still taking subscription sign-ups. For $13/week, I get half a farm box of locally-grown-and-picked-that-day, organic, heirloom vegetables will feed my household through Thanksgiving (the other half is shared with two of my Earthwatch colleagues).

I’d never even considered such a thing. A subscription for fresh, organic produce. What an awesome idea. I looked at the CSA website and found two local growers. One was already sold out (180 subscriptions). The other has not yet sold out and I’ve sent them an email to find out more of the details. Specifically, I’m not sure if you really have a choice of what your subscription basket contains. I realize they can only supply what they’ve already grown (i.e. what’s in season) but I wonder if I can load up on stuff I like and drop the stuff I don’t or if they fill a basket and I get what I get. I’m curious to learn more.

So, I’m nearing the end of my experiment with Steve Gaskell. We’re writing a novella together, tentatively named “Skimming the Sun.” It was planned as a short story, perhaps a novelette, but it’s grown. We decided not to put any artificial constraints on it, and as it grew, we just let it — no conscious effort to reduce size, other than being open to reducing the size if it seemed warranted. It didn’t. It felt like this was the right size for this story. We’re currently at 32k and it’ll probably end up being about 35 by the time we’re done. It feels, oddly enough, like a tight 32k at the moment. Not much fat (though there is some).

I’ve been thinking about collaborations in general the last few days. This was my first try as a seasoned author. I know that collaborations will be handled in all sorts of different ways. For me and Steve, we divided the story into two parallel tracks, one “past” storyline and one “present”. Those also happen to correspond to the two main characters in the book, each of us focusing one of those characters, though I write about Steve’s character in my thread and he writes about mine in his.

Other than the difficulty of matching our schedules (he lives in Brighton, UK, I live in Racine, WI, USA), it’s gone surprisingly smoothly. I think one reason is that we have similar writing styles (though I will confess that I tend more toward plot-driven story — something I’m constantly working to mitigate — and Steve tends more toward character-driven story). I don’t think I have the right temperament to work with someone whose writing style is wildly different from mine, at least writing in this manner. (More on that in a moment.) I think another reason it’s gone well is that both of us have been very open to change, and I mean that in two ways.

First, we’re both open to allowing changes in the ideas that we’ve come up with or the things we’ve written. This is entirely necessary, I think, to a successful collaboration. You have to be able to give, even if it’s not quite how you would have done it alone. It may not even necessarily be better than what you would have done by yourself, only different, and that’s a different kind of benefit: you expand your horizons by allowing things to enter the story that you coudln’t have thought of on your own. That’s not to say that most of our suggestions don’t make the story better. Many of them do. But there are some where it’s almost a coin toss as to the benefit to the story. It’s more about personal tastes, background, tendencies, etc. And then it’s a matter of negotiating and trying to figure out which stays most true to the story and the characters.

The second way of being open to change is to have the chutzpah to recommend changes. I think we’ve both been very forthcoming about this, not being worried about offending the other. You can’t, assuming you really want to include someone else on a writing project, close yourself off to ideas. There have been a few cases where we’ve both had to just sit on an idea for a few days, mull it over, before coming to a decision. But, of course, you have to be able to stand up for something you believe in as well.

Even worse than recommending changes is actually rewriting certain sections of prose that the other wrote. When you’re reviewing, you’ll often suggest things, give examples of change. But this is out-and-out changing what someone wrote. I don’t mind when Steve does it with my prose, but I feel like I’m walking on eggshells when I do it with his. It’s a constantly changing landscape, doing this. It’s like walking inside one of those bouncy carnival tents: you never quite have your balance, no matter how sure-footed you are on solid ground. It’s a tightrope act. You have to get over your fears while not acting like a bull in a China shop.

I mentioned above about not wanting to work with someone whose style was wildly different than my own. What I mean is that I couldn’t tackle a story in this way: both of us writing, both editing one another’s prose. But I could envision another way of working, and I know collaborations that have worked this way: both writers plot the story and create the characters (see, there I go again — I put plotting first…), but only one person writes. Then both edit, and one person (usually the same person again), incorporates the edits. Lather, rinse, and repeat until the story’s finished. That way, the story comes out with a single voice. Otherwise you might end up with a Frankenstein story that has clearly different writing styles in different sections. (That might be pretty cool for the right kind of story, but those stories are vastly outnumbered by those that would benefit from a single voice. Plus, both writers would have to be really good to pull something like this off. It’s not something I think I’m ready for yet. Maybe someday.)

So far, it’s been a great experience. And I think the story’s going to be a good one. Time will tell…

My wife has had a jewelry shop on Etsy for a while now. It’s called Relly Rose Designs. She’s been going to art fairs as well, and expanding her jewelry making skills. She shoots for a shabby-chic, urban kind of design, and I think the results are fantastic. I like a lot of her things, but below are a few of my favorites. Oh, and she has a blog, too, over at rellyrosedesigns.blogspot.com. I’m sure she’d love to hear from any of you, even if it’s just to say hello.

I have a bit of time at the end of the day to either watch a movie (or a part of a movie) or read. I’ve been sort of alternating back and forth for a while, and I recently watched the Lord of the Rings movies over the course of about two weeks. It was a very pleasant surprise to realize that I had bought but never watched the extended editions of The Two Towers and Return of the King. Fellowship I had watched, and so the added scenes weren’t new to me, but there was scads of new content in the last two that I thought I had already caught. I think I bought them and planned to have a marathon viewing of all three movies, perhaps with friends, and then I just never got around to it.

It was great to see them again, and pleasantly surprising that they held up so well. I don’t mean over the course of time. I mean that typically when you rewatch movies you begin to see more and more of its faults. I did see some of those things, but I also recognized what a great job Peter Jackson and the other writers did to make this a very personal and emotional movie, where the books were less so. Of course, the books still have a special place in my heart. They were the first books that I read that I truly enjoyed and truly lost myself in. But I want to recognize what an accomplishment Peter Jackson made in these three movies. They stand on their own as a fully realized story.

It was incredibly gratifying to view a fantasy story that can proudly proclaim to be one of the best movies ever made. Not merely a good fantasy movie. A good movie. The writing, the directing, the cinematography, the acting, the effects. On and on… It’s really a treasure, and I’m glad that all other fantasy movies will now be held up to this yardstick. It will make them better, and that’s great, because there are a lot of wonderful fantasy movies that deserve to be brought to the big screen.

While I was watching, I wasn’t trying to pay particular attention to the acting, but in the way of these things (at least as a writer who tends to pick things apart almost subconsciously) I found certain actors to be up to the task and others less so. There were two standouts for me on this watching. They were head and shoulders, I think, above the others, who were all rather good in their own right. The first was Sean Bean as Boromir. I had seen him in a few movies before LotR, and I liked him, but didn’t much think more of him than that. Even on the first watching, I was like, yeah, he did a good job with Boromir. But on this watching, I was amazed. He had a very challenging role. He had to act as a member of the fellowship while showing cracks in his veneer. He had to want the ring without making it overt. He had to cajole without coming across like he was the enemy. His best scene was when Frodo dropped the ring into the snow and Boromir picked it up. He stared at it, and like so many characters during the three movies, was entranced, was lured by its power. And yet he did not have the upper hand, and so couldn’t act on it. He stared at it longingly, wondering how so small a thing could control the fate of so many. And then when Aragorn insisted that he give the ring back to Frodo, he does so, but in a manner as if the ring means nothing to him. It was great, as were nearly all his scenes where the ring and his homeland were concerned.

The other outstanding actor? Brad Dourif as Wormtongue. It was too bad Wormtongue had such a small part in the movies. I won’t go so far as to say his talents were wasted,  but he could’ve done with more screen time, I think. His scenes where he was speaking with Eowyn and then later with Gandalf were filled with so much malice. It was great to watch, and to hear. He had some of the more elegant lines, I think. He became sort of an imp by the time he reached Orthanc, which was too bad, but I appreciated the time he had before that point.

Along with the standouts, there were also two weak performance. Now, I don’t mean they were bad actors, but as with anything, you’re going to be compared to those around you. The first was Cristopher Lee as Saruman. Now, to be fair, I think Lee did what he could with the lines he was given. He had the weakest writing out of anyone in the whole movie, I think. He was often relegated to playing the “exposition deliverer” because there was either no other easy way to deliver it or because the movie’s plot points had diverged from the novel. Also, he was hamstrung a bit during the various “wizard battles” between him and Gandalf, which did neither Ian McKellan nor Lee any favors. They simply looked too silly during those fights, and despite the decent effects, it came across like so many of the fantasy movies of the past in their bring-you-back-to-the-theater awkwardness. That being said, I think Lee was still a bit stiff. McKellan played Gandalf exceedingly well, and Lee suffered by comparison.

The other weak actor, I was a bit surprised to realize, was Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. I like Viggo. He’s done well in a number of films, but again, he was just not up to the caliber of those around him. There were several points in the movies where he has to drop his distant, ranger act and become human, like when the hobbits all kneel to him when he takes the crown at the top of Minas Tirith. I can’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with it, but it felt like acting as opposed to Aragorn being Aragorn. Another place where he falls short is in the final rallying of the troops before Minas Morgul. He runs his horse back and forth, saying there may be days when men fall, when they lack courage, but it is not this day. That one. Great speech, bad delivery. Trouble was, King Theoden, played by Bernard Hill, gave a similar speech to the Riders of Rohan before they rode down and attacked the orcs on the fields before Minas Tirith. That speech was awesome, inspiring, chill-inducing even. Aragorn’s was none of those things. You hardly believed that Viggo believed those words, much less his character. There were plenty of places where Viggo did well, but they were mostly during the silent, broody scenes, like in the Prancing Pony. Still, from a looks standpoint, Viggo was right on, so I’m not really complaining about the choice here. Just reflecting on something that surprised me.

How about you? Anyone watch the movies a few times and come across any surprises?

Some of you know that I like to cook. What most of you won’t know is that I’ve harbored a secret desire to run a restaurant. I’ve resisted the idea because of my nature — sometimes I just don’t like to deal with people. But, as I get older, I yearn to do something different with my life, something different than the 9-to-5 at IBM (software programming, mostly Java, if you’re curious), and I think I’ve mellowed a bit, so I’m better able to deal with the day-to-day annoying stuff that’s sure to come up. I was hoping I could some day shift over to real estate (I own a few properties) and writing, but, well, let’s just say that over the last couple of years that bubble has burst (not to mention the one that was holding up the housing market).

I’ve been playing with various restaurant themes for a while. Fish tacos, a la Southern California. A breakfast place. Gallettes. Sammiches. None of it seemed quite right for either me or the area (Racine, WI - very Midwest) or both. I’m not classically trained, and so I don’t think I’d be able to run anything more than a specialty shop, where the choices are somewhat limited (so that I can master them in a reasonable time). I could, of course, simply hire a chef and cooks to do the cooking, but that’s not what I want.

Recently, I decided that pizza might make a good choice. Pizza’s always in demand. It’s relatively easy to master. It’s easy to make (i.e. they’re not terribly labor intensive). And they still allow for quite a bit of creativity on the part of the chef. So, I’ve been researching. I’ve been playing around with a few recipes (Alton Brown, Peter Reinhardt, and a few others), trying to find the style of pizza I want to make, and I’ve narrowed it down to pizza napolitana (or Neapolitan pizza). I’m not worried about staying terribly true to the form with respect to traditional ingredients. What I like is the crust and the simplicity of ingredients. Focus on crisp, chewy crust, good sauces, and a few, quality ingredients, bake in a wood-fired oven, and there you have it.

So, I’m finally getting to the part where I need help. I’m taking two trips this year, one to Flagstaff (for the Starry Heaven workshop) and one to New York (for a getaway). I’ve already decided to visit Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, which is supposed to be one of the best pizza places in the U.S. And while I’m headed to New York, I figured I’d try one there as well. Everyone raves about NY pizza, right? (Though I must admit I’ve yet to have a really good slice while I’m there.) I’m wondering if anyone can give me a good recommendation for a pizza joint. And I mean good — like, sell your soul for a slice good. I’ve done a bit of research and I’ve found Una Pizza Napoletana and Luzzo’s Coal Oven Pizza in Manhattan. Anyone ever been to these two places? Any other recommendations?

And for that matter, any recommendations across the US? I get around for work and conventions, and it’d be fun to go to a really awesome pizza place, depending on where I’m headed.

I’ve been really curious to see the new Fox series from Joss Whedon, Dollhouse, for quite some time. It seemed like a great concept and I’ve been a fan of Whedon’s stuff for a while. I never did get into Buffy, the series, but I did like the original movie quite a bit. I didn’t realize until recently that he was a part of Titan A.E., which I thought was a decent (though not great) effort at a more adult-oriented animated film. Firefly and Serenity I really liked, so again, when I saw the first trailer for Dollhouse, I was pretty jazzed.

I watched episode one online (it actually came across great on my PC with Fox’s HD video player). It stars Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) as Echo. She is one of several dolls, humans whose minds are erased and imprinted with whatever roles are necessary for a given client’s needs, be that a friend, a lover, an assassin, or what have you. The premise, in a nutshell, is that Echo, while out on assignments (called engagements by the Dollhouse staff), starts to become self-aware, and as she goes through successive engagements, receiving new imprints each time, she learns more and more about her own true, sullied past. We see a glimpse of that in the very first scene, as a conflicted, pre-doll Echo is signing up for a five-year stint at the Dollhouse, and as the story of the first episode plays out, we already see signs that the house of cards the operators of the Dollhouse have carefully constructed may be ready to tumble down around them.

The Dollhouse itself is filled with some interesting characters. The one in charge is Adelle DeWitt, played competently by Olivia Williams. She’s cold and confident, and her bottom line, it seems, is the mighty dollar and the interests of the company’s shareholders, no matter what might become of her dolls. They are resources, to be used in whatever way will gain the Dollhouse the most influence, money, or both. Playing the opposing role of conscience, it seems, is ex-police officer Boyd Langton (played by Harry J. Lennix). He’s Echo’s handler, and he has already plied his somewhat weak influence in the Dollhouse to help Echo. Surely more of this is in the offing. One can see Boyd helping Echo to eventually regain her memories. But to do this, he would not only have to oppose Adelle, but the scientist who seems a bit mad with his own power, Topher Brink (Fran Kranz). Topher is an interesting character, quick to free himself of his morals in his intense drive to play with the minds of these dolls, creating amalgams of various, recorded personalities to create whatever the clients of the Dollhouse needs. He is a master chef of sorts, pulling ingredients from various sources to create what he considers works of art. No matter that the canvas was once a human being with memories of her own. One assumes that each of the dolls was promised that they would eventually regain their memories, once their stint in the house was done (less the five years of their service, of course). One more major plotline is that of an ongoing investigation into the Dollhouse, which many in law-enforcement circles believe to be fictitious. One agent, Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), is on assignment full-time to find the Dollhouse and those that run it, so that (presumably) they can be brought to justice for kidnapping the dolls and wiping their memories (no matter what legal mumbo-jumbo they might have signed beforehand). Ballard’s got his hands full, because even while he struggles to complete his mission, those above him are trying to derail his efforts, thinking it a complete waste of time and resources.

I love the premise of the show. One can already see that the writers can play quite a bit with the morality of the dolls’ actions — do the ends justify the means? In the first episode, for example, Echo becomes a hostage negotiator, trying to regain a daughter for her very rich father. If she succeeds, then one might argue that in this one act the five years Echo gave up were worth it. But there’s the rub. On one engagement she might save a little girl, but on another she might assassinate a government agent. The characters Whedon has put in play make for a nice stew, a varied landscape of opposing goals that will make for a lot of rich plot possibilities.

But that’s only half the story, of course. What about the writing, the acting? Well, here it doesn’t live up to the promise of the premise. Dushku plays Echo faithfully, but her character in particular has a lot placed on her shoulders. She has to portray whatever Doll happens to be needed on her engagement. She came across to me like someone who was in above her head, acting-wise. She played the role, but not with any sort of authority. She’s a bit too doe-eyed in the face of the camera, a bit too stiff. I can suspend disbelief enough to let that go for an episode or two, but hopefully she comes into her own more as the series moves on. Fran Karnz as Topher had some of those same characteristics, though to me his character is a bit more interesting than Echo, so again, I hope that he can mature. Olivia Williams and Harry Lennix were the standouts. I think they’ll end up holding the show up for a time until the various threads begin to complicate one another and make for a more interesting soup.

The writing on the first episode was ok. (SPOILERS AHEAD) They placed Echo in the role of a high-priced hooker for her first on-screen engagement, and I fear that many of her engagements (at least the ones that are shown on the periphery of each episodes main plot) will be of this variety. They appear ready to show a fair bit of skin, perhaps to compete against the 18- to 35-year-old audience. I don’t mind that, per se, but I hope those engagements get pulled into the plot, rather than act as eye candy only. Echo’s second engagement, however, was as a hostage negotiator who was nearsighted and had asthma. From an acting standpoint, this was great, because it created a character that would bring something interesting to the table. From a plot standpoint, I think the way they went about resolving the hostage situation was weak (read: unbelievable). Echo’s personality was pulled together from various, disparate sources to create the perfect woman for this particular engagement. But as it turns out, one of those personalities was herself abducted when she was a child, driving her to become a hostage negotiator, and when it came time for the transfer of money-for-child, one of the abductors just happens to be the very man who abducted her when she was young. Could it happen? Sure. Would it happen? About one time in a gazillion. It set up an interesting dilemma — Echo’s new personality was having a very difficult time overcoming her fear to complete the mission — but it didn’t pass the bullshit test, and so from that point on, I was like: yeah, right.

I’m certainly willing to overlook a few faults. It’s nice to see some good science-fiction on TV, so I’ll be tuning in to Dollhouse for a few more weeks yet to see how it goes. I recommend that you do the same.